(Auspicious-footed month)
In Bhadrapad’s honeyed, slow light,
the world is a photograph
waiting to be developed.
We go down to the backwaters,
where the burdened city dissociates
into a babble of stars and ponds diced by rain.
Dusky Krishna arrives,
on the eighth day of the waning moon
despite a choppy, flooding Yamuna.
A glittering Ganesha
is welcomed on the fourth day
of the waxing lunar cycle.
This month of cymbals and drums.
asks to return every year,
asks for a quieter tide,
the way breath asks for a quieter time.
Bhadrapada perpetuates the question:
if I tell you, my palms could cup
all the joy in the world,
all the grief in the world,
what would you say?
Note: The month of Bhadrapada is considered a period of auspiciousness in the Hindu calendar